BALLSTON SPA >> East side village residents submitted a petition to trustees Monday, hoping to keep the pressure on officials to rid dangerous truck traffic from their neighborhood streets.

Malta Avenue and Hyde Boulevard residents, who submitted a petition signed by more than 100 people, have especially suffered from issue.

“They are causing infrastructure damage, they’ve taken out telephone poles, and are endangering the children who go to school there at Malta Avenue Elementary,” said Roxanne Marsh, who lives on Malta Avenue with her husband, Greg.

Marsh and her husband were so incensed with the truck traffic, as well as speeding cars where the posted speed limit is 30 mph, they submitted a petition Monday to village trustees with 105 signatures, asking for a permanent solution.

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“It’s just a matter of time before children get hurt or killed,” Roxanne Marsh said.

Banned from the village’s main artery, Milton Avenue (state Route 50), tractor-trailer operators have sought detours along several side streets that can connect to state routes 9 and 67 and 50 outside of the village.

“Studies have shown an 80 percent decrease in speed when the digital signs are used,” Marsh said.

Spurred on by the concerns of not just the people who signed the petition, but the long-standing problems in that area, Mayor John Romano updated residents on the village’s response.

“The problem is at a local level,” Romano said. “It’s estimated that 19,000 cars pass through our village every day. The trucks are looking for alternate routes and shortcuts. This traffic is an infringement on residents’ lives. These roads were never designed to bear the load.”

Romano said it was even more troubling as the shortcuts the tractor-trailers take go through a school zone, where children are boarding and leaving buses that park along a narrow section of the street.

Romano said he spoke with Ballston Spa Superintendent Joseph Dragone and Ballston Spa Police Chief Charles Koenig, as well as officer Anthony Pirrone, who is a certified truck inspector, to find a permanent solution, especially after calls from residents requesting a stop sign after several accidents at the intersection of Malta Avenue and Chapman Street.

Romano said the solution they arrived on took into account “an increase in the disregard for obeying traffic laws in the village.”

They decided to install not only a three-way stop sign at that intersection, but also a second four-way stop sign at the intersection of Malta Avenue and East Grove Street.

Romano said in the past the village took some proactive steps to address the truck traffic and speeding issues.

Romano cautioned that speed limits in villages are controlled by state Department of Transportation and the standard speed limit is 30 mph. But those limits can be lowered to 15 mph in school zones, he said.

Romano cautioned that the latest stop signs are for safety concerns, and don’t include signs addressing speed limits.

Romano said parking congestion on Malta Avenue, as well as surrounding streets have contributed to the problem. This congestion has decreased visibility of pedestrians and resulted in long lines of vehicles on Hyde Boulevard waiting to turn onto Malta Avenue.

Romano said the issue with the tractor-trailers is being addressed through stepped-up enforcement.